"Repent and turn from all your transgressions, lest iniquity be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! Why will you die, O house of Israel? For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.” Ezekial 19:30-32

In the above verse we see a classic example of God commanding us to do something we simply cannot. When I read this recently everything inside me yelled out "but I CANT do that God!" How can I create ANYTHING, let alone a new heart and spirit within me? And then it struck me. God urges us to do the impossible so that we will turn to him in desperation and plead with him to do for us what he has commanded. So, we see for example David praying,

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me. (Psalm 51:10)

It has become something of a habit for me to watch a Piper sermon as part of the preparation of my heart to preach. I don't mean the preparation of my sermon material; rather I mean the preparation of my heart. Getting my heart into the right place to preach is a bigger challenge for me than writing a good set of notes. Piper stirs my heart in ways no one else I listen to does—in order that I should be grateful to God and sensitive to other people. He cares for his listeners and is passionate about his God.

The talk I want to highlight today certainly is a clear example of all those things, and it is also the single most important topic we can ever speak about. There is nothing more important than helping us to understand the new birth correctly. We need to know for certain that we are saved. In this talk Piper explains seven reasons why we need to be born again, which I will share here:

1. Apart from the new birth, we are dead in trespasses and sins. (Ephesians 2:1-2)
   
   
2. Apart from the new birth, we are by nature children of wrath. (Ephesians 2:3; Psalm 51:5)
   
   
3. Apart from the new birth, we love darkness and hate the light. (John 3:19-20)
   
   
4. Apart from the new birth, our hearts are hard like stone. (Ezekiel 36:26; Ephesians 4:18; Romans 1:18)
   
   
5. Apart from the new birth, we are unable to submit to God or please God. (Romans 8:7-8; John 3:5)
   
   
6. Apart from the new birth, we are unable to accept the gospel. (Ephesians 4:18; 1 Corinthians 2:14)
   
   
7. Apart from the new birth, we are unable to come to Christ or embrace him as Lord. (John 6:44, 65; 1 Corinthians 12:3)

— John Piper

The ESV Study Bible (ESVSB) launch date of October 15th is approaching fast. The Study Bible team has been busy sharing samples and features online to entice us. Their goal is to help people know what's inside the Study Bible and how it might best serve them.

From an e-mail sent out by the Study Bible team, here is a summary of what is available at this time:

Free Book Introductions and Sample Chapters Online
In addition to the previous posts from Jonah, the Psalms, and Revelation, the introductions have now been uploaded,including sample chapters, for the following books:

• Ezekiel
  
• Isaiah
  
• Ephesians
  
• Colossians

Free Articles Online
A number of the fifty articles that will be in the ESVSB have now been uploaded:

• Overview of the Bible: A Survey of the History of Salvation, by Vern Poythress
  
• Reading the Bible
  • Reading the Bible Theologically, by J. I. Packer
    
  • Reading the Bible as Literature, by Leland Ryken
    
  • Reading the Bible in Prayer and Communion with God, by John Piper
    
  • Reading the Bible for Personal Application, by David Powlison
    
  • Reading the Bible for Preaching and Public Worship, by R. Kent Hughes
• The Bible and World Religions
  • Contemporary Judaism, by Marvin Wilson
    
  • Islam, by Timothy Tennent

City Plan of Rome
The Introduction to the Book of Romans contains a city plan of ancient Rome, which has been posted online, along with an excerpt of some of the information on Rome found in that introduction. Other city plans that you'll find in the ESVSB include the cities of Ur, Nineveh (see page 9 of the Jonah PDF), Babylon, Jericho, Corinth, Ephesus, and Philippi.

Interviews With Contributors

• Andy Naselli interviewed David Reimer about the book of Ezekiel (blog interview)
  
  
• Michael Spencer interviewed David Powlison about the application of Scripture (blog interview)
  
  
• Colin Adams interviewed Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. about the book of Isaiah (blog interview)
  
  
• Andy Naselli interviewed Clinton Arnold about the book of Colossians (blog interview)
  
  
• Andy Naselli interviewed S. M. Baugh about the book of Ephesians (blog interview)
  
  
• Beginning with Moses interviewed Vern Poythress about biblical theology and seeing Christ in the Old Testament (blog interview)
  
  
• Owen Strachan interviewed Harold Netland about pluralism and world religions (audio, mp3, approximately 45 minutes)

New Videos
A video page has been launched for the ESVSB.

Some of you have probably already seen the five-minute YouTube preview, but that was just part of a thirteen-minute video that goes into more depth. Each of the nine chapters from the video is available individually. Some of you might be especially interested in this one-minute overview of the Online Study Bible, which hasn't been discussed much yet.

All the videos are available to download as high-quality mp4s.

The following video is an interview with Wayne Grudem, J. I. Packer, and Lane Dennis of Crossway, and is hosted by Justin Taylor:




Facebook
If you want to interact with others about the ESVSB, you can now join a Facebook group.

If you live in North America you can pre-order from the ESV Study Bible website or from Amazon.com using the following links, which seem to be offering significant discounts:



If you live in Europe, then visit Amazon.co.uk using the following links:

Even my regular readers may not remember that some time ago I decided I wanted to work my way through John Piper's sermons on the new birth. I know it has been awhile since I mentioned this, but I don't want to rush this process, and let's just say I'vebeen busy with other things. So far I have shared my quotes and thoughts from the first and second sermons.

Watching this third video, it was very refreshing to see Piper emphasize that the new birth really does change us. It was a very helpful reminder of the need for God to, as he puts it, give us new life by connecting us to Jesus.

My guilt must be washed away. Cleansing with water is a picture of that. Jeremiah 33:8 puts it like this: “I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me.” So the person that we are—that continues to exist—must be forgiven, and the guilt washed away.

But forgiveness and cleansing is not enough. I need to be new. I need to be transformed. I need life. I need a new way of seeing and thinking and valuing. That’s why Ezekiel speaks of a new heart and a new spirit in verse 26 and 27: “I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

Here’s the way I understand those verses: To be sure, the heart of stone means the dead heart that was unfeeling and unresponsive to spiritual reality—the heart you had before the new birth could feel. It could respond with passion and desire to lots of things. But it was a stone toward the spiritual truth and beauty of Jesus Christ and the glory of God and the path of holiness. That is what has to change if we are to see the kingdom of God. So in the new birth, God takes out the heart of stone and puts in a heart of flesh. The word flesh doesn’t mean “merely human” like it does in John 3:6. It means soft and living and responsive and feeling, instead of being a lifeless stone. In the new birth, our dead, stony boredom with Christ is replaced by a heart that feels (spiritually senses) the worth of Jesus.

Then when Ezekiel says in verses 26 and 27, “a new spirit I will put within you. . . . And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes,” I think he means that in the new birth, God puts a living, supernatural, spiritual life in our heart, and that new life—that new spirit—is the working of the Holy Spirit himself giving shape and character to our new heart.

The picture I have in my mind is that this new warm, touchable, responsive, living heart is like a soft lump of clay, and the Holy Spirit presses himself up into it and gives spiritual, moral shape to it according to his own shape. By being himself within us, our heart and mind take on his character—his spirit (cf. Ephesians 4:23).

So now let’s step back and sum up these last two weeks. What happens in the new birth? In the new birth, the Holy Spirit supernaturally gives us new spiritual life by connecting us with Jesus Christ through faith. Or, to say it another way, the Spirit unites us to Christ where there is cleansing for our sins, and he replaces our hard, unresponsive heart with a soft heart that treasures Jesus above all things and is being transformed by the presence of the Spirit into the kind of heart that loves to do the will of God (Ezekiel 36:27).

By John Piper. © Desiring God. Website: desiringGod.org

I had the great privilege of talking to Don Carson in April at the New Word Alive Conference, when this interview was recorded. I have already shared the video of the interview here.

*************************

Adrian
Hi! I’m Adrian Warnock. I blog at http://adrianwarnock.com/. and I’m also privileged to serve as part of the leadership team of Jubilee Church in London. I’m here at New Word Alive, together with Don Carson, who has kindly agreed to answer a few of my questions. Thank you for joining us, Don.

Don
My privilege.

Adrian
Excellent. So, Don, you’re obviously a busy man. You do all kinds of things—write books and lecture, and all the various things you do—and yet you, and John Piper, and later this year, Mark Driscoll, all sorts of American guys keep coming over here. Why do you think that is? Why do you come?

Don
The Church of Christ is world-wide at the end of the day, and partly because of Trinity’s reach, we serve many countries, and partly because of my own roots over here (I lived here for nine years, my wife is English), and partly because there is a camaraderie in the ministry itself. Not only do we come here, but there are a number of Brits who come to where we are, and then we might even meet up in Kuala Lumpur. That’s the way the Church is, increasingly. There’s a global reach, and we lean on each other, gain support from each other, and try to bring glory to Christ in different ways in different parts of the world.

Adrian
Fantastic. Well, we’re certainly glad you’re here. I have very much enjoyed listening to your talks. What’s your impression of the conference as a whole?

Don
The buzz I’m hearing (but I’m the outsider) is that people are really grateful for the Bible teaching, not only in the big sessions, but also in a lot of the seminars and so on. After John’s material last night, for example, on suffering, there was one woman in a wheelchair who said that she had found this one of the most encouraging things she had ever heard in her life, and the whole conference is worth it just for her, isn’t it?

Adrian
Yes!

Don
And then when you realize there are five thousand people who are receiving blessings from God from his Word in one way or another, it’s something for which to be incalculably grateful.

Adrian
Yes. I guess there’s no real substitute for gathering people to hear God’s Word, is there really?

Don
That’s right. That’s right.

Adrian
Whatever context it’s in. And it’s interesting because I’ve just been talking to John, who obviously gave up theological life to become a pastor. And I guess you’ve devoted your life to training pastors. Is that a fair way of describing it?

Don
Yes. I started off in pastoral ministry. He started off with theological . . .

Adrian
So you did it the other way around?

Don
I went the other way around. And there are dark moments when I wish I hadn’t. But you can’t second guess either yourself or God all the time. It’s not right. But about fifteen years ago I almost left Trinity to go to a church. It was a church near a major university and I wanted to do the sort of thing that John is doing. I had two or three senior men in the ministry, both already at that time in their early 70’s, descend on me and tell me in very authoritarian terms that I just must not do it because they were afraid that if I did I wouldn’t reserve enough time to do some of the writing I was doing.

Now whether that’s right or not, I don’t know. You offer yourself up to God and try to do what’s right. But I would say that the front line is the local church. And there is a sense in which seminary is a back-up slot. The front line is the local church, and the first impetus towards ministry and towards stamping people for what ministry ought to be should be within in the context of the local church. And then a good seminary, a good theological college, helps to provide the kind of training and further exposure to more technical knowledge, a grasp of the languages, and this sort of thing. Virtually no local church can provide that, and yet it’s really important for those who teach in such places, nevertheless, to be pastors first, because if they think of themselves of teachers and scholars first, then they tend to produce teachers and scholars. So there’s a stamping, not simply from the course material, but from your own values, what you dream about, what you think about. So, at our seminary, we always want to hire a certain percentage of faculty who wish they were in the pastoral ministry, or else quite frankly, we don’t want them. Now, they have to be academically competent and all the rest, but we don’t want people who just want to be in a seminary. We want people who in many ways would prefer to be in the local church. So, that’s as close as I can come to explaining where I’m at.

Adrian
Oh, that’s good. So, of all the many books that you’ve written, Don—this is again a question I asked John about his books—but of all the books that you’ve written, what would you say would be the most important two or three books—the ones that perhaps people should start with reading, let’s say?

Don
I have no idea how to answer that because people find books are important for different reasons. So for some people working through the front end of post-modernism, the 1996 book or whatever date it was, The Gagging of God, they found very helpful at the time. On the other hand, widely read by pastors was my John commentary, for example. I just don’t know how to answer that sort of question.

Adrian
I guess it’s what fits that person.

Don
That’s right. And as you say—What should they read first? Well, an awful lot depends on who they are. If they’re a lay person, [they] might start off with a book like Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount or something like that. I just don’t have a formulated answer for that. For pastors today who are in small churches and sometimes feel discouraged and wonder if their life is worth it, what I’d now recommend is the one that came out just a month or two ago called Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor. It’s short—only 160 pages— and it’s really on my dad. He was a quintessential, ordinary pastor in many ways. He never preached in another country. He never wrote a book. He was never a conference speaker or the like. Most of the congregations most of his life were 30 people. But he exemplified faithfulness in some pretty grueling circumstances. He nursed my mother through the Alzheimer’s years. He was a church planter cross-culturally moving from the English to the French side of Canada, and had a passion for faithfulness in all kinds of small ways. Yeah, it’s not so much a critical history as a collection of our memories of him and a lot of his diary entries and so on as he struggled with these kinds of things and tried to be faithful in small corners.

Adrian
I’m guessing that he was probably one of the main influences on you growing up and into ministry, was he?

Don
Not directly. When I left home I had no intention of going into the ministry. In some ways I was closer to my mother. Nevertheless, his pattern certainly has stamped me. But I started off in chemistry and mathematics. I had no intention of going into the ministry. That came about by other things. But, undoubtedly, in all kinds of subliminal ways I scarcely recognized, his pattern has affected me. But it wasn’t a kind of direct thing—“Oh, I want to be like Dad!” sort of thing. It wasn’t that at all.

Adrian
So who did influence you most to make that kind of jump from chemistry to theology?

Don
That wasn’t a single step either. I worked in a research lab in Ottawa for the federal government in air pollution. I discovered that the people in this lab—I had a good budget, I had a good project, I enjoyed what I was doing—but most of the people in the lab were either resenting it and waiting for retirement or, alternatively, chemistry was their god. And I didn’t fit in either camp. I was enjoying it, but at the same time another chap and I were trying to start a Sunday School in a new church in the upper valley, and that became more and more important to me as time went on. I remember a chorus that I learned as a boy playing out in my mind again and again:

By and by, when I look on his face,
Beautiful face, thorn-shadowed face;
By and by, when I look on his face,
I will wish I had given him more.

And in that autumn, I heard a sermon from a man—I think I’ve only ever heard him preach two or three times—a sermon on Ezekiel 22, where God says, “I sought for man to stand in the gap before me for my people, but I found none.” And God used that in a powerful way in my life so that I wanted to cry with my whole being, “Here am I, send me!” But none of that was planned.

Another earlier step was the minister of the church I was [attending] in Montreal said that he wanted me to be his assistant one summer. And I said he had confused me with a theological student—I was chemistry. I never did go and do it, but it was the first time I started thinking about it because some minister had tapped me on the shoulder and said I ought to be thinking about it. So there were many different things that God used providentially to woo me away from chemistry and science and towards vocational ministry.

Continued in part 2 . . .

Mark Dever over at Together for the Gospel has written about how we should expect persecution. He may well be right. As I read his post, however, and also a few of his buddy, Al Mohler's, cultural observations, I wonder if I detect a more general note of pessimism about the future of the church.

I may very well be wrong about that in the case of the individual people I mention, but I'm sure there are many Christians who are, indeed, very negative about the future. It certainly seems that Spurgeon's view that more will be saved than not is vanishingly rare today.

So which is it? Are you an optimist or pessimist about the future of the church and why?

UPDATE

Mark Dever has written more about optimism and pessimism concerning the future over on his blog. Here's a quote from his lead paragraph:

Our brother Al Mohler once said somewhere that "optimism is naive, but pessimism is atheistic." I think he's right. On non-ultimate matters (our government's fate, our culture's response to the Gospel, the world in rebellion against God) we can be agnostic or even pessimistic. But on ultimate matters—God's glory, His victory in procuring a people to His eternal praise, the triumph of the church—there is nothing but ultimate optimism presented in the Bible—Old Testament or New. Jesus promised in Matt. 16 that His church will prevail. We see from visions in Ezekiel, Daniel, Revelation, and prophecies in Isaiah and the Gospels that, in the end, and FOREVER, GOD WINS!!

Today I want to bring you quotes from a talk given by John Piper about Charles Simeon. We begin with a description of Simeon's recollection of a conversation he had with the Arminian, John Wesley, when he was a young man. The conversation is instructive about how we should deal with people we disagree with and about how sometimes moderates from both sides of a theological debate are closer than we realise.

"Sir, I understand that you are called an Arminian; and I have been sometimes called a Calvinist; and therefore I suppose we are to draw daggers. But before I consent to begin the combat, with your permission I will ask you a few questions. Pray, Sir, do you feel yourself a depraved creature, so depraved that you would never have thought of turning to God, if God had not first put it into your heart?

Yes, I do indeed.

And do you utterly despair of recommending yourself to God by anything you can do; and look for salvation solely through the blood and righteousness of Christ?

Yes, solely through Christ.

But, Sir, supposing you were at first saved by Christ, are you not somehow or other to save yourself afterwards by your own works?

No, I must be saved by Christ from first to last.

Allowing, then, that you were first turned by the grace of God, are you not in some way or other to keep yourself by your own power?

No.

What then, are you to be upheld every hour and every moment by God, as much as an infant in its mother's arms?

Yes, altogether.

And is all your hope in the grace and mercy of God to preserve you unto His heavenly kingdom?

Yes, I have no hope but in Him.

Then, Sir, with your leave I will put up my dagger again; for this is all my Calvinism; this is my election, my justification by faith, my final perseverance: it is in substance all that I hold, and as I hold it; and therefore, if you please, instead of searching out terms and phrases to be a ground of contention between us, we will cordially unite in those things wherein we agree." (Moule, 79f)

But don't take this to mean that Simeon pulled any punches when expounding Biblical texts. He is very forthright in teaching what the Bible teaches and calling error by its real name. But he is jealous of not getting things out of balance.

He said that his invariable rule was "to endeavor to give to every portion of the Word of God its full and proper force, without considering what scheme it favours, or whose system it is likely to advance" (Moule, 79).

"My endeavor is to bring out of Scripture what is there, and not to thrust in what I think might be there. I have a great jealousy on this head; never to speak more or less than I believe to be the mind of the Spirit in the passage I am expounding" (Moule, 77).

He makes an observation that is true enough to sting every person who has ever been tempted to adjust Scripture to fit a system.

"Of this he [speaking of himself in the third person] is sure, that there is not a decided Calvinist or Arminian in the world who equally approves of the whole of Scripture . . . who, if he had been in the company of St. Paul whilst he was writing his Epistles, would not have recommended him to alter one or other of his expressions.

But the author would not wish one of them altered; he finds as much satisfaction in one class of passages as another; and employs the one, he believes, as freely as the other. Where the inspired Writers speak in unqualified terms, he thinks himself at liberty to do the same; judging that they needed no instruction from him how to propagate the truth. He is content to sit as a learner at the feet of the holy Apostles and has no ambition to teach them how they ought to have spoken." (Moule, 79)

With that remarkable devotion to Scripture, Simeon preached in the same pulpit for fifty-four years. What drew me to him was his endurance – not just because of the length of time, and not just because it was in the same place for all that time, but also because it was through extraordinary opposition and trials . . . .

In 1807, after twenty-five years of ministry, his health failed suddenly. His voice gave way so that preaching was very difficult and at times he could only speak in a whisper. After a sermon he would feel "more like one dead than alive." This broken condition lasted for thirteen years, till he was sixty years old. In all this time Simeon pressed on in his work.

The way this weakness came to an end is remarkable and shows the amazing hand of God on this man's life. He tells the story that in 1819 he was on his last visit to Scotland. As he crossed the border he says he was "almost as perceptibly revived in strength as the woman was after she had touched the hem of our Lord's garment." His interpretation of God's providence in this begins back before his weakness. Up till then he had promised himself a very active life up to age sixty, and then a Sabbath evening. Now he seemed to hear his Master saying:

I laid you aside, because you entertained with satisfaction the thought of resting from your labour; but that now you have arrived at the very period when you had promised yourself that satisfaction, and have determined instead to spend your strength for me to the latest hour of your life, I have doubled, trebled, quadrupled your strength, that you may execute your desire on a more extended plan. (Moule, 127)

So at sixty years of age, Simeon renewed his commitment to his pulpit and the mission of the church and preached vigorously for seventeen more years, until two months before his death . . . .

Simeon was utterly unlike most of us today who think that we should get rid once and for all of feelings of vileness and unworthiness as soon as we can. For him, adoration only grew in the freshly plowed soil of humiliation for sin. So he actually labored to know his true sinfulness and his remaining corruption as a Christian.

I have continually had such a sense of my sinfulness as would sink me into utter despair, if I had not an assured view of the sufficiency and willingness of Christ to save me to the uttermost. And at the same time I had such a sense of my acceptance through Christ as would overset my little bark, if I had not ballast at the bottom sufficient to sink a vessel of no ordinary size. (Moule 134f.)

He never lost sight of the need for the heavy ballast of his own humiliation. After he had been a Christian forty years he wrote,

With this sweet hope of ultimate acceptance with God, I have always enjoyed much cheerfulness before men; but I have at the same time laboured incessantly to cultivate the deepest humiliation before God. I have never thought that the circumstance of God's having forgiven me was any reason why I should forgive myself; on the contrary, I have always judged it better to loathe myself the more, in proportion as I was assured that God was pacified towards me (Ezekiel 16:63) . . . There are but two objects that I have ever desired for these forty years to behold; the one is my own vileness; and the other is, the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ: and I have always thought that they should be viewed together; just as Aaron confessed all the sins of all Israel whilst he put them on the head of the scapegoat. The disease did not keep him from applying to the remedy, nor did the remedy keep him from feeling the disease. By this I seek to be, not only humbled and thankful, but humbled in thankfulness, before my God and Saviour continually. (Carus, 518f.)

If Simeon is right, vast portions of contemporary Christianity are wrong. And I can't help wondering whether one of the reasons we are emotionally capsized so easily today – so vulnerable to winds of criticism or opposition – is that in the name of forgiveness and grace, we have thrown the ballast overboard.

Simeon's boat drew a lot of water. But it was steady and on course and the mastheads were higher and the sails bigger and more full of the Spirit than most people's today who talk continuously about self-esteem.

Simeon's missionary friend, Thomason, writes about a time in 1794 when a friend of Simeon's named Marsden entered his room and found Simeon "so absorbed in the contemplation of the Son of God, and so overpowered with a display of His mercy to his soul, that he was incapable of pronouncing a single word," till at length, he exclaimed, "Glory, glory." But a few days later Thomason himself found Simeon at the hour of the private lecture on Sunday scarcely able to speak "from a deep humiliation and contrition."

Moule comments that these two experiences are not the alternating excesses of an ill-balanced mind. Rather they are "the two poles of a sphere of profound experience" (Moule, 135). For Simeon, adoration of God grew best in the plowed soil of his own contrition.

Simeon had no fear of turning up every sin in his life and looking upon with great grief and hatred, because he had such a vision of Christ's sufficiency that this would always result in deeper cleansing and adoration.

Humiliation and adoration were inseparable. He wrote to Mary Elliott, the sister of the writer of the hymn, "Just as I Am,"

I would have the whole of my experience one continued sense - first, of my nothingness, and dependence on God; second, of my guiltiness and desert before Him; third, of my obligations to redeeming love, as utterly overwhelming me with its incomprehensible extent and grandeur. Now I do not see why any one of these should swallow up another. (Moule, 160f.)

As an old man he said, "I have had deep and abundant cause for humiliation, [but] I have never ceased to wash in that fountain that was opened for sin and uncleanness, or to cast myself upon the tender mercy of my reconciled God" (Carus, 518f).

The whole talk is well worth a read or listen.

For more information on Charles Simeon visit the following:

Online biography of Charles Simeon

Biography of Charles Simeon used by John Piper

Simeon's Writings
Piper mentions the massive 21-volume set of Simeon's sermons that form a commentary on the Bible. Having read what I did above, I was eager to get ahold of these. Sadly they are not in print. So I have started a personal campaign to persuade the good folks at Logos to produce a version of them. If you, too, would be interested in purchasing an electronic, searchable edition of his writings, then let me know via email or in the comments section here.

Spurgeon seemed to love the work and said the following about it in his book reviewing commentaries:

SIMEON (CHARLES, M. A. 1759-1836). Horae Homileticae; or, discourses digested into one continued series, and forming a commentary upon every book of the Old and New Testament; 21 vols. Seventh edition. London, H. G. Bohn, 1845. S.f2 10s. [Being the entire works of Charles Simeon, with copious indexes, prepared by T. Hartwell Horne.] Not commentaries, but we could not exclude them. They have been called 'a valley of dry bones': be a prophet and they will live.

I am praying that they may live again!

By John Piper © Desiring God
Website: http://www.desiringgod.org/
Email: mail@desiringGod.org
Toll Free: 1.888.346.4700

My sermon on sunday was on prayer (which will be no surprise to my regular readers!) I focussed in on how prayer changes us and the vital importance of believing in and experiencing a present God. The audio is available at http://jubilee-church.org/sermons/2006/01/prayer-works-when-life-is-tough.htm

Here are the notes I preached from

Four groups of people here this morning, and I have something to say to each of you

1. Those who are not yet Christians

� You will have an opportunity to become a Christian today- begin to think, is that what I want to do?

2. Those who used to live like a Christian but you haven't been going to church for a while and are what we might call "backslidden"

� You will have an opportunity to rededicate yourself to Jesus this morning- is that what you want to do?

3. Christians who are following God, but nonetheless are facing a tough time at the moment, and for whom hope is a battle- perhaps your motivation is lower than it used to be

� I am praying that todays message will give you renewed hope as we look at how to pray in tough times

4. The rest of us will face tough times in the future � so be prepared!

For all of us we are going to focus on the kind of prayer which works when life is tough.

PSALM 13 The "how long" psalm

At the beginning of this psalm we see an absent God, a worrying heart and an exalted enemy.

Sadly for many Christians, although they believe in God, they belive in a God who essentially leaves them to their own devices and this experience of God feeling distant and almost disinterested in them is their daily experience.

In fact for some Christians their experience of God is almost non-existant. It doesn't have to be that way!

God does not intend us to relate to him as some kind of distant, dormant figure, and we just quietly wait for heaven. There is a "not yet" to the Christian life, as we wait for heaven but there is also meant to be a NOW aspect to it.

Maybe you have never known the real presense of God in your life, this psalm tells us you can experience God, it also tells us that there are times when although in fact God hasn't forgotten us, he does hide himself from us.

Actually, our sin and indifference towards God produces a barrier between us and him which has to be dealt with � if God seems a long way away, or you are not even sure about whether he exists, this psalm tells us how to pray in a way that changes this.

BY the end of the psalm we have

A Present God, a joyful heart and hope that the enemy will be defeated.

What makes the difference? PRAYER!

What can we learn about the kind of prayer that works in tough times from this psalm?

David begins with

THE LONGING OF HIS HEART

"how long�.."

There is a yearning that everyone feels at times, but during hard times that yearning becomes stronger.

We were made for something more than this daily grind.

Life is a journey. We have not arrived at the destination, but are getting closer all the time.

We are not made for this world, and when things go wrong it helps us to realize this.

Children say "are we there yet", God like the parents say "it wont be long now" we, like the kids say "it feels like for ever" When we get there, like the kids we will almost forget the journey for eternity will be so wonderful, and so long that everything we experience on earth will feel like-

"light and momentary troubles"

If the battle wasnt so hard the victory wouldnt taste as sweet.

The phrase "how long" itself marks the beginning of faith. There is a cry that all is not as it should be, and just a hint that he is expecting an answer that isn't "I have forgotten you and will hide from you forever!"

As Christians, we are not called to believe that all is as it is meant to be. We should have a yearning in our hearts for more. Our church, is known for being on the move, for changing. Anyone who was hear one year ago will tell you things were very different- meeting in a school, much smaller, beginning to look outwardly, not as many visitors, prayer beginning to grip us.

God has no problem with us being dissatisfied with the status quo- there is little to pray for if we are completely at ease with the way things are.

In fact we look for some sense of dissatisfaction in our leaders.

The secret I want us to learn this morning is NOT the secret of being content WITH all our circumstances, but rather the secret through prayer of being content IN ALL our circumstances

Life can be hard for us as individuals- how long will I be sick? Struggle with this sin? Have this relationship problem? Be looking for a job?

How long will the church as a whole be in decline in the UK? When will revival come?

God has no problem with us being sincere with him. We can fall into two errors here- 1 unreality � how are you "praising the lord" or getting angry with God and giving him a piece of our minds.

David is respectful and honoring of God, but is also real about how he feels.

His prayer starts a bit out of balance really, even as he says "how long will you forget me�." He probably knows that he is going a bit too far, but have you ever stopped to think that in order to walk we have to be out of balance.

He is stewing in his own thoughts � taking counsel within � or wrestling with thoughts

It certainly seemed to him that God had forgotten him � maybe you feel the same way. AS he is leaning in the direction of despair, it is as though all his years of experience of the faithfulness of God kicks in and rather than fall over into frank despair, his reflex takes over and his foot swings forward, and he moves into a cry that marks the beginning of faith.

THE CRY OF PRAYER

IT is OK to bring things to God and to then move into a cry for his mercy

Bring light to my eyes good prayer for the unbeliever, the backslidden and the established christian

Note the cry of faith, "O Lord MY God!"v3

Prayer is the turning point between mourning and rejoicing!

God who can help a worthless wretch like me become the man he wants me to be.

If you are an unbeliever here today, we pray for you that God will bring light to your hearts, as John Piper put it

My prayer for unbelievers is that God will do for them what He did for Lydia: He opened her heart so that she gave heed to what Paul said ( Acts 16:14). I will pray that God, who once said, 'Let there be light!', will by that same creative power 'shine in their hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ' ( II Corinthians 4:6). I will pray that He will 'take out their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh' ( Ezekiel 36:26)���.

In short, I do not ask God to sit back and wait for my neighbor to decide to change. I do not suggest to God that He keep his distance lest his beauty become irresistible and violate my neighbor's power of self-determination. No! I pray that he ravish my unbelieving neighbor with his beauty, that he unshackle the enslaved will, that he make the dead alive and that he suffer no resistance to stop him lest my neighbor perish.

THE CHANGE PRAYER BRINGSFive and six represent faith. Faith is the fruit of prayer � don't wait till you have faith to pray, pray in order to get faith!

Don't wait for God to show himself to you, cry out to him to show himself to you, even if you have to say "if you are there"

Re3membring past blessings and thanking for them!

"Sorrows remembered sweeten present joy."

PRAYER INFUSES GODS THOUGHTS INTO US.

RESPONSE

Notice that nothing in his circumstances had changed, HE had changed instead.

SALVATION AND REDEDICATION of life to Christ

John Piper: "What I am saying is that it is not the doctrine of God's sovereignty which thwarts prayer for the conversion of sinners. On the contrary, it is the unbiblical notion of self-determination which would consistently put an end to all prayers for the lost. Prayer is a request that God do something. But the only thing God can do to save a lost sinner is to overcome his resistance to God. If you insist that he retain his self-determination, then you are insisting that he remain without Christ. For 'no one can come to Christ unless it is given him from the Father' (John 6:65,44).
Only the person who rejects human self-determination can consistently pray for God to save the lost. My prayer for unbelievers is that God will do for them what He did for Lydia: He opened her heart so that she gave heed to what Paul said (Acts 16:14). I will pray that God, who once said, 'Let there be light!', will by that same creative power 'shine in their hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ' (II Corinthians 4:6). I will pray that He will 'take out their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh' (Ezekiel 36:26). I will pray that they be born not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God (John 1:13). And with all my praying I will try to 'be kind and to teach and correct with gentleness and patience, if perhaps God may grant them repentance and freedom from Satan's snare' (II Timothy 2:24-26).
In short, I do not ask God to sit back and wait for my neighbor to decide to change. I do not suggest to God that He keep his distance lest his beauty become irresistible and violate my neighbor's power of self-determination. No! I pray that he ravish my unbelieving neighbor with his beauty, that he unshackle the enslaved will, that he make the dead alive and that he suffer no resistance to stop him lest my neighbor perish.
"

This post has been entered by Matthew Self of The Gad(d)about. Adrian has accepted my offer to post interesting and unique links to news and other blog entries while he's on break. Like Superman, I promise to use this new power for good, not evil.

A brief glance around the Web:

Dr. Mike at Eternal Perspectives has rediscovered a healthy "reverential" fear of God by working through Ezekiel. This new/old revelation has given him new insight into how much our sin hurts God, even our "little sins." As he works through Ezekiel 6, he shows while God's discipline may not be pleasant for us, it's very painful to Him as well, because our sin pierces his heart.

David Wayne at JollyBlogger, to whom Adrian shares a wonderful blogging connection, provided some interesting perspective on a chapter from Total Truth by Nancy Pearcey. The author poses an argument that church growth is at its strongest when the church sets its members at odds with secular culture, rather than embracing secular culture. David agrees the church has a counter cultural message by its nature and the tension with the secular world is by design, however, he's not ready to condemn all seeker-sensitive churches. I would add I think there's a difference between appreciating the tension created by God and being openly hostile to the secular world. The latter would be, in my opinion, what led Jonah into flagrant disobedience. To use an old expression, hate the sin, love the sinner.

Just when Sting and CCM artist Jill Parr tell us they've lost their faith in science (and progress), scientists have unraveled the genetic code of rice. Scientists from 10 countries helped identify the 400 million "letters" that make up rice. They hope to develop crops that are resistant to disease and might flourish in harsher climates. "Rice is a critically important crop, and this finished sequence represents a major milestone," said Robin Buell of The Institute for Genetic Research. Now if they could only improve the taste of soy sauce. On a more serious note, this has to be good news for the "hunger belt" threatening to swallow up Africa. All of this is a reminder for me to support African missionaries and churches who deliver this timely message.